Maintenance & Reliability
HP Reliability: Pursue a comprehensive infrared condition monitoring strategy
The best reliability-based condition monitoring programs begin small and expand as needed to cover the plant thoroughly. A thermography program normally begins with the electrical system. This applica..
HP Reliability: Consider reliability-focused maintenance
Reliability professionals attending one of HP's recent International Process Plant Reliability Conferences were briefed on the improvement approach taken by a large U.S. organization. This forward-loo..
HP Reliability: Publish or perish – a reminder to industry
A number of useful textbooks dealing with machinery reliability and dozens of technical papers dealing with related subjects owe their existence to an interesting policy. Twenty-one years ago, one of ..
HP Reliability: Closed-loop oil mist systems are a viable lubrication option
Although plantwide, centralized oil mist systems have served industry well since the early 1960s, closed-loop oil mist systems have made major inroads only in this decade. Environmentally-acceptable a..
HP Reliability: Reliability growth models for process plants
Failure data are used to build simple log-log plots for predicting future failures and identifying if failure trends are improving or deteriorating. On the Crow/ AMSAA plot (Fig. 1), stable processes ..
HP Reliability: How installation and operation influence MTBF
Mean-time-between and mean-time-to-failure (MTBF and MTTF) can differ for the same equipment. The differences are often attributable to quality of installation and grade of operation. This situation i..
HP Reliability: What to do with reliability indices
This issue is often raised, or even debated. A simple explanation would be that reliability data can be converted into uncomplicated, figure-of-merit performance indices. Consider these indices as coa..
HP Reliability: What to do with reliability indices - Fig 1
This MTTF data from production, maintenance Remember: MTTF is a meterstick- and purchasing records. not a micrometer ..
HP Reliability: Plans needed to train proficient engineers
More than once, this column has dealt with the importance of training the reliability professional. Thirty-five years ago, my section supervisor at New Jersey-based Exxon Research and Engineering disc..
Use equipment failure statistics properly
These data can help in deciding which reliability improvement efforts are feasible and reasonable
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